Community Stabilization & Resilience

On Stabilization:

Community stabilization initiatives are designed to address migration drivers and promote local capacity in order to mitigate or prevent the recurrence of displacement and irregular migration.

In places of origin, in host communities and in areas of return, IOM community stabilization programmes assist governments and civil society to reduce push factors, to improve services, incorporate the needs of host and receiving communities, as well as to address the impacts of large-scale flows of migrants and the displaced.

Specifically, these initiatives work across multiple sectors, with a focus on inter alia:

• Improving access and provision of essential services such as health and education;
• Rehabilitation and augmentation of basic community infrastructure, including local markets;
• Supporting local governance capacity and economic recovery, including through cash-based programming and small-grants administration;
• Using community engagement to improve participation, social cohesion and peacebuilding;
• Consulting with all stakeholders to identify and implement community priorities and build trust in government.

IOM’s Community Stabilization programmes respond to evidence of displacement and migration patterns, and are tailored through an analysis of context including socio-economic, political, security and environmental factors that drive risk and vulnerability. These initiatives contribute to the sustainable protection of vulnerable groups by delivering direct assistance, improving services and governance, and generally promoting local ownership. They empower local actors to design, implement and monitor the processes. They also improve safety and security by working across peace and development frameworks to address longer-term effects associated with protracted displacement, and negative migration pressures associated with state fragility.

On Resilience:

In support of its global mandate on human mobility, IOM maintains a longstanding commitment to building the resilience of displaced persons, migrants and communities uprooted or otherwise affected by crisis or fragility.

In the context of migration crisis response, but also in pre-crisis and fragile settings, IOM understands resilience-strengthening as a strategy to promote agency, coping and self-reliance abilities, and to create opportunities for vulnerable people to make informed choices, while building capacity to mitigate the underlying drivers of displacement and vulnerability. Resilience-building approaches empower affected people to better influence their crisis conditions while reducing vulnerability to future, protracted or reoccurring shocks and stresses.

​IOM Kosovo is working towards stabilizing communities and increasing resilience on the local and individual level through various of its programmes, most notably through the 'EU - Community Stabilization Programme' and the 'Community Based Approach to Support Youth in Targeted Communities in Kosovo' project.